Эрл Гарднер - The Case of the Backward Mule

“Despite the fact that the building was dark and the man you expected to meet apparently wasn’t here, you started for the door?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, now, isn’t that a bit unusual, Mr. Clane, for a person to try to enter a dark building where apparently no one...”

“I didn’t say I tried to enter the building.”

“But you did enter it, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then do you want me to understand that you entered it without trying? Ha, ha, ha! That’s rather illogical, Mr. Clane.”

“Perhaps,” Clane said, “you’d better let me go ahead and give it to you in narrative form the way it happened.”

“Oh, we’re doing very well by this question-and-answer method. It enables me to keep right on the subject. But, let’s see now. You walked toward the entrance of the building, but you didn’t intend to enter. Is that right?”

“I intended to stand in the doorway of the building, waiting for Mr. Gloster. There was no particular reason to remain standing here in the middle of the street.”

“Well, that’s right. It’s not the middle of the street. It’s pretty much to one side of it, but I can see your point. You went over intending perhaps to sit down on the doorstep there?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, looking at it that way, that’s perfectly logical, Mr. Clane. So you went over and sat down on the doorstep?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?”

“No.”

“But I thought you told me that’s what you intended to do?”

“It is.”

“Then something changed your mind. You must have seen something. You must have noticed something a little out of the ordinary.”

“That’s right.”

“What was it?”

“When I got over here, I saw that the door was partially open.”

“Well, now that’s something, Mr. Clane. That’s a very fine point, a very fine point indeed. The door was partially open. You see how we’re getting things just by having you go over every detail of what happened. That door being partially open may be quite a clue. You’re sure the door was partially open?”

“That’s right.”

“So you walked right in?”

“No,” Clane said, “I called first.”

“You called. What did you call?”

I said, “Oh, Gloster!”

“And got no answer, I take it?”

“That’s right.”

“So then you walked right in in the dark?”

“No,” Clane said, “I didn’t. I had a little flashlight in my pocket.”

“A little flashlight,” Malloy said. “Well now, that’s something. You really go prepared, Mr. Clane. You really do. When you go to call on a person, you take a flashlight with you.”

Clane said, somewhat angrily, “It’s not an unreasonable precaution. When I was in the Orient, I never went out without...”

“That’s it. That’s it,” Malloy said, his voice showing relief. “I’d forgotten about your being in the Orient. Of course, that explains it. Here a person ordinarily wouldn’t take a flashlight in going to pay a sociable visit. But you’ve been in the Orient. Streets are narrow and dark, and... why. certainly, that accounts for it. You’ll pardon me, Mr. Clane. Go right ahead. You had a little flashlight so you took the flashlight out and walked into the office...”

“No,” Clane said. “Remember I told you about the light switch. I took the flashlight out and stepped inside the door and looked around for a light switch. I found the light switch right there by the door. Apparently it’s a master switch that turns on all the lights in the building.”

“Of course,” Malloy said, his voice indicating that he was disgusted with himself. “I remember you told me you turned on the lights. You used your flashlight to look for a light switch, and then you found the light switch and turned on all the lights and then you nut the flashlight back in your pocket.”

“That’s right.”

“And oh, by the way, you were alone, Mr. Clane? I didn’t ask you specifically about that, but I gather you were alone.”

“If there had been anyone in the taxicab with me, I’d have told you,” Clane said.

“I’m satisfied you would. I’m satisfied you would. But you know the way things are, Mr. Clane. I’m just an inspector and I’m supposed to make a report, and I’m supposed to cover everything in that report — absolutely everything. Now go right ahead. You were in the building here all alone. The lights had snapped on and you could see the entire warehouse and that door over there to the office? Now let’s just go stand right in the position where you were when you turned the lights on. All right. You were standing right here. Now you put the flashlight back in your pocket, I take it. There was no need for having a flashlight after the lights came on.”

“That’s right.”

“Then you put the flashlight back in your pocket and stood there with the lights on. Now how about this door into the office here? Was that open?”

“It was slightly open.”

“So you walked right in.”

“I paused and called out Gloster’s name.”

“I see. And then you pushed the door open.”

“That’s right.”

“And what was the first thing you saw?”

“I don’t know. I just saw the room generally.”

“You didn’t see the body right away?”

“Not right away. No.”

“Now did it occur to you, Mr. Clane, that you’d gone rather far? That you’d gone to a perfectly strange place, one in which you had no interest, had turned on the lights, and entered the place?”

“Not right at the time,” Clane said. “One step sort of led to another rather naturally.”

“I see. But later on it occurred to you that your actions were... well, shall we say, just a bit unusual?”

“Not unusual, I would say. But the culminating effect of those actions was, of course, to leave me standing in this room.”

“Exactly. And you put that rather cleverly, Mr. Clane. Rather unusual for a man who was meeting a man who wasn’t even a friend, a man to whom he was more or less indifferent. You just walked right in, didn’t you?”

“Well, when I saw the open door, I stepped inside. And then I looked for a light switch and then I saw the light switch and saw this other open door, and stepped in here.”

“Yes, I can see when you put it that way that one thing sort of led to another. Now go ahead, Mr. Clane. You saw the body.”

“That’s right.”

“And what was the first thing you said when you saw the body, Mr. Clane?”

“Why I didn’t say anything.”

Malloy looked at him in surprise. “You didn’t say anything, Mr. Clane?”

“Nothing.”

“Why, why not? Didn’t it impress you as being unusual to find a body lying here?”

“Naturally.”

“And yet you didn’t mention it, didn’t say a word?”

“To whom would I have addressed the remark?” Clane asked.

Inspector Malloy slapped his thigh with his palm. “Of course,” he said, “you were alone. I’d overlooked that for a minute. Wasn’t anyone with you? A woman perhaps?”

“I think we’ve already gone over that.”

“So we have, so we have. But I just wanted to be certain. That’s right. You didn’t say anything because there wasn’t anyone with you to say it to. You’re not the type of person who would be apt to go around talking to yourself. So you saw the body, and then what did you do?”

“Well, I stepped back out of the room and started to switch the lights off. Then I realized that I would have to notify the police and that I was in a very peculiar position when it came to notifying the police. I hardly wished to go out looking for a telephone.”